Dark

When you visit Epic Universe’s Dark Universe, you get hints of a story that’s so mysterious you’ll want to keep coming back to learn more. In Darkmoor Village, where monsters and humans co-exist—barely—the relationship between the villagers, the mad scientist in her castle with her monsters, and the vampires below is a very fragile menagerie of the macabre.

When io9 visited Darkmoor during Epic Universe’s opening week, we couldn’t help but wonder if the dense canon introduced would offer some insight into Universal’s abandoned Dark Universe film franchise. It turns out that some elements in the attractions, details in the land offerings, and immersive interactions echo what was once supposed to herald an Avengers-like assembly of the Universal Monsters on the big screen.

Landmarks

© io9 Gizmodo

When you enter Darkmoor, you pass by a massive crypt where you hear Victoria Frankenstein’s assistant Ygor shuffling about with the land’s version of Frankenstein’s Monster looking for victims to use in her experiments. There’s squelching noises and creepy creature screeches, and it’s so cool to get the sense of story as soon as you walk in.

We previously covered how when you meet Frankenstein’s Monster along with the Bride, she’s not his Bride but his friend. The Monster we’re more familiar with is displayed in a glass resting place within Frankenstein Manor. However, before you get that deep into the land, you first come across the village square which features a well that at night glows blood red. The familiars in the land shared that it’s there as a monument to the dominance the vampires have on the village, and is where blood sacrifices are made to the vampire hive below in the catacombs—dark unipart of a pact to keep a balance struck between the living and the dead.

In the ride Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment, you see that the original Dr. Frankenstein played a huge role in the careful and sensitive cessation of carnage, and it’s something his granddaughter fights to maintain. We also learn that Victoria Frankenstein has assembled monsters under her “control;” the last remaining one she’s trying to dominate is Dracula, but he’s playing very hard to get.

When the Dark Universe films were still in play, Alex Kurtzman, the director of the only entry that actually made it to theaters—2017’s The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise—talked about the framework that was to have anchored the planned series. In his film, Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll headed up an organization devoted to keeping tabs on supernatural bad guys.

“We wanted to know that monsters existed for millennia. And we knew that as the story evolved there was going to be an organization that was maybe cataloging them, following them, collecting them,” Kurtzman explained at a December 2016 press event io9 reported on at the time. “That would determine the good ones from the bad ones. That was sort of the keeper of that secret history.”

That idea carries over into the theme park, albeit very minimally. Dr. Jekyll currently only has a brief interactive moment at his apothecary window, where you can hear him tell you to discover more monsters at the Burning Blade Tavern—and to tell the bartender Dr. Jekyll sent you. We didn’t get to try this as alcohol was not provided to press but it results in you being offered a choice between two shots: a Jekyll or Hyde one. You can guess that in Darkmoor, Jekyll might side with Victoria’s initiative, while Hyde is definitely with the monsters.

The comic-themed merch

© Universal Studios Products and Experiences

In the panels of comics decorating Epic Universe merch (we’re waiting for real issues!) and in the Monsters Unchained ride queue, we see Victoria front and center doing just what was envisioned for the movies: cataloging, following, and collecting. So it feels like the concept for the theme park canon retained that through line. There are definitely some monsters who are more heroic than others aligning themselves with the side that will have the lowest body count.

Yet, it still mirrors the Dark Universe’s cinematic plans. In 2016, The Mummy director Kurtzman looked to the Dark Universe future at that same press event. “To me, the fun of the promise of bringing them together is that they’re probably going to fuck each other up pretty badly,” he said then. “It’s not going to be a pretty room with those guys in it. And that’s a lot more exciting than people who are going to behave nobly and predictably. It just makes it a more interesting experience, and a more interesting prospect.” And that’s pretty much what happens on the ride between Frankenstein, the Wolfman, and Dracula and his Brides (while the Phantom of the Opera plays sweet tunes on his organ).

Other pieces of merchandise that will get you other glimpses of the lore are the designs in the Dark Universe collection that depict the blueprints of Frankenstein Manor. Also, if you get transformed into a monster at the park’s Darkmoor Monster Makeup Experience, then run into Ygor, you’re recruited even more relentlessly than the average human to volunteer for the Frankenstein Experiment. Ygor is by far one of the most interesting walk-around characters created and really drives the lore in his interactions.

Restaurant lore

© io9 Gizmodo

When asked back in 2016 how the Dark Universe monsters would end up teaming up, Kurtzman said ideas around that were still being formulated. But most important, he said, was the question “Why would you bring them together? There has to be some kind of unifying reason if you’re going to do that.”

Dracula. Dracula is the drama. And I wonder if he was meant to be the big bad in the film universe just as much as he is the big bad in the theme park canon. When you go into the Das Stakehaus restaurant, you see the former vampire leaders of Darkmoor staked and on display atop the bar. Why? Well, Dracula felt their bending the knee to the Frankenstein family to try and co-exist to further the scientists’ agendas was an affront to their kind. (Really, the familiars have all the tea, it’s fabulous.) So the conflict is there—Dracula wants to take control back of the village for a feast, instead of letting Victoria Frankenstein continue her experiments.

Clearly, it’s an ongoing battle. Like the familiars at the restaurant, the interactive characters at the Burning Blade Tavern have even more to share. The monster hunters that hang out there motion to the monster heads on display behind the bar, including another “creature” from the Darkmoor swamplands, and be careful going in there in monster makeup.

We also got hunter knowledge as to why Dracula is barefoot with the ugliest toenails on the ride (a detail that’s going viral). Their version of why—and we are not sure if they were joking—is that allegedly it was done as a way to shame Dracula when he was captured, by taking his shoes off when he was chained. And honestly, that’s so foul I would be so mad about it too.

It’s rumored that the stories they tell of monsters they’re on the hunt for (and that we have yet to meet) are Easter eggs for future Dark Universe expansions and we hope it’s true. And it really ties in the monsters that were all floated for the cinematic universe, which included the Invisible Man (who is a roaming character at the park), Dracula, Jekyll/Hyde, the Wolfman, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Bride. We’d love to see a boat ride featuring the Creature some day.

Dark Universe is now open at Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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